THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN. 




SPEECH 



Govee:^oe Jewell, 



CONNECTICUT, 



DELIVERED AT 



COOPER IN^STITUTE, 

SEPTEMBER lith, 1872. ' 



HARTFORD, CONN.: 
CASE, LOCKWOOD & BRAINARD, PRINTERS. 

18 7 2. 



ETc 



.0 5^ 



'1 






SPEECH 



Permit me to thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the very com- 
plimentary manner in which you have been pleased to intro- 
duce me, and you, fellow citizens, for this most cordial and 
flattering- reception ; which, however pleasant to mo, but in- 
creases the embarrassment under which I rise to address you. 
Engrossed as I am in my public and private duties, (having 
devoted my life almost entirely to business pursuits — politics 
being an affair in. which I have but very lately tjiken an active 
part,) I should have followed my inclinations and declined 
the polite invitation of the Republican Committee of the 
State of New York to appear here to-night, had I not become 
so interested in this campaign that I find it impossible to keep 
out of it. 

I do not propose to apologize for the Republican party, its 
platform, its record, or its candidates. It is within the rec- 
ollection of the. youngest of us, when, where, and how this 
party was started. At its birth its principles were very brief, 
and its platform still more so. It was simply this : " Equal 
and exact justice to all before the law." A party that could 
within the short space of fifteen or twenty years achieve what 
this has done, that could turn the entire current of thought 
of the most progressive nation under the sun from its old 
channels of looking with at least some degree of toleration 
on the sin of human slavery, that could change the front of 
40,000,000 of people, marching with the strength and rapidity 
with which we are moving, towards the highest possible civil- 
ization, an achievement so remarkable, so noble, so important 
in its results for the race, needs no words of excuse or apolo- 
gy, not only for its existence but for its continuance. Great 
as have been its achievements, numerous and important as have 
been its victories, much as it has accomplished, there still 
remains much to be done before it will have fulfilled its mis- 






^■. 



sion, and have completely carried out the idea of freedom 
which called it into existence. And yet we are finding not a 
few who have heretofore been warmly attached to the for- 
tunes of our party, saying that all the good which it can 
accomplish, it has already done, and that it ought now to give 
way to other issues, and ignominiously perish. Not so does 
it look to me. Our party must continue its onward and 
upward progress until the last vestige of antagonism l)etwecn 
the races of people, of yhich our nation is composed, has 
been completely and entirely extinguished. For no other 
possible end could Providence have raised up this magnificent 
and powerful party. No compensation but this will be equal 
to the fearful loss of life and treasure by which tlie nation 
has attained its present position. 

If any bloody chasms still exist, it is the duty of this party 
to (ill them up, and to plant above them the seeds of peace, 
prosperity, and unity. Bloody chasms do not belong to an 
era, to a people, to an intelligence, to a religion like ours, and 
it is only necessary that we attend as carefully to our political 
duties as to those of our private and social life, to make our 
fair land what we have each one of us been hoping and ex- 
pecting it would be, since in our childhood we learned the 
truisms of the Declaration of Independence. Nothing but an 
earnest wish to contribute my mite to the accomplishment of 
all this could have induced me to leave my counting-room, 
and a])pear before you, to-night, in the rol^ of public speaker. 

In all our later presidential campaigns, up to this, we have 
had two great parties confronting each other, each with a dis- 
tinct set of i)rinciplcs and candidates. Candidates have here- 
tofore been selected, representing the principles of their party, 
by a life-long devotion to them, and an earnest wish to carry 
them out, and each surrounded by party sal'egnards, watch- 
words, and histories, whith like an unwritten law would keep 
them in certain grooves. 

Hut iliis year how ditlercnt. Tbe Ivepublican party, true to 
its traditions, lias put forward its jjlatform, and ou it its can- 
didates, pledged l)y their past history to carry out to the 
letter tbe doet lines of which we are so proud, and for which 

0« 



we have sacrificed so much, and with which we feel certain to 
succeed. We have not clianged our tactics, nor do we pro- 
pose to. We expect to elect our candidates, and to continue 
the same general course which we have heretofore pursued. 

But what do we find opposed to us ? Candidates taken 
from our own party bj a wing of discontented so called 
reformers — to the support of whom are invited their ene- 
mies and ours, and for what! simply for office, for pat- 
ronage, for spoils ; and how has this been brought about, 
and how arc our opponents seeking to carry on this cam- 
paign ? They do not pretend it is Democratic ; they do 
not pretend it is Republican ; they do not pretend it is 
any thing in particular. It is simply an aggregation of the 
outs to get in ; at the North for one reason, at tlie South for 
another ; in one State for free trade, in another for protec- 
tion ; in one place pretending to give tlie negro his rights, in 
another to deprive him of them ; in one section because these 
candidates favored the war, in another because they favored 
secession. It is all a dodge to obtain power and plunder. It 
is a fraud so stupendous in its inception, and fraught with 
results so disastrous could it be successful — which, thank God, 
it cannot be — that it would stamp American politics to be, 
what some of our European friends claim, one grand scram 
ble for office, regardless alike of the proprieties of political 
warfare, of the amenities of civilized life, and of respect for 
the reputation of our country. 

And while I do not, as I said before, propose to apologize 
for our party or its candidates, yet the campaign is being 
caiTied on in a spirit so unjust and so vindictive, that I do 
propose to defend our candidates from some of the false 
aspersions which have been hurled against them. 

ATTACKS ON PRIVATE CHARACTER. 

Never before in any presidential campaign has the private 
life and character of the candidates been assailed with such 
malignity and mendacity, as has that of the Republican can- 
didates in the present canvass, by the men who propose to 
rise on the ruins of those they would crush, and wliose^sole 
watchword is, " Anything to beat Grant." 



6 

Never before has my anger been roused to such a pitch ; 
never have I felt all the manhood within me tingling with 
hidignation, as now, when I sec the vile and unjust attacks 
u])on the President of the United States, a man to whom the 
country owes a debt of gratitude that no honors which it may 
heap upon him can ever liquidate, and the sum of wliich can- 
not be expressed in dollars, however many. From gentlemen 
occupying high places of honor in our land, down to the 
meanest penny-a-liner of a country newspaper, our enemies 
are searching their vocabulary for terras of vituperation with 
which to traduce the character of this man, to whom they at 
least owe respect for the services he has rendered their coun- 
try, if they cannot treat him decently as a man. 

Twelve or fourteen years ago there was in existence a mod- 
est hide and leather firm, doing business in Galena, under 
the name of J. R. Grant. Being in the same business, 
my knowledge of these gentlemen commenced with that 
time. They were marked in all our agency books as moder- 
ate in capital, fair in credit, and high in character. It is 
well known in the mercantile community how much care is 
taken that no injustice shall be done any party in his '• mark- 
ings," as it is termed, and that while no one shall he rated so 
high as to give iiim credit unwarranted by his capital or char- 
acter, yet that no injustice be done him, and that he shall 
have the full benefit of all which he has that tends to entitle 
him to public confidence. And now, while one of this family 
is out of mercantile l)usiness and in political life, we find a 
systematic attempt on the part of his opponents to write him 
down in the political " markings " as bankrupt, and entitled 
to no credit, either for capacity, honesty, or de])ortment. 
One would think by the reading of Mr. Sumner's speech, of 
which they claim to have distrilmtcd hundreds of thousands 
of copies, that General Grant had ai)solutcly no virtues, and 
he is accused as being guilty of nearly all the crimes forlnd- 
dcn in the Decalogue. Others have followed as nearly as 
possible in the wake of the eminent Senator, taking their cue 
from him, and thinking to serve their cause by not only re- 
echoing his malignant attacks, but by inventions of their own 
which are equally false. 



I have given such attention to some of the charges made 
against him as my opportunities enabled me to do, and pro- 
pose to answer a few of them, to brand them as falsehoods 
pure and undiluted and without the slightest foundation, and 
to defend my candidate for President against these unjust 
aspersions, with at least as much care for his character now 
that he is President of the United States as I would have 
done for his credit had he continued in the hide and leather 
business. And I propose to speaiv about nothing which I 
do not know. I propose to make no statements which will 
not bear investigation. I shall touch on no points which I 
have not myself looked into, and I back my assertions with 
all my business and political character. 

CHICAGO LAND. 

The President appointed as Minister to Belgium an old 
Galena friend of his, but latterly a resident of Chicago, J. 
Russell Jones. 

A few weeks ago the Chicago Tribune found a magnificent 
mare's nest, in the fact that Mr. Jones had deeded thirty-one 
acres of land to the President, and the consideration which 
the deed called for was one dollar ; thus accusing Mr. Jones 
of having bought his appointment. As he has made a most 
excellent minister while abroad, and has given universal satis- 
faction to the Americans who have had business witli him, 
the New York Tribune thought it a good chance to blacken 
both his character and the President's by rehearsing this 
shocking specimen of bargain and sale, and labored in 
column after column, article after article, and day after day, 
to show to its virtuous readers how corrupt an administra- 
tion we had, and how necessary it was to put a keen, smart, 
bright, honest man like " Uncle Horace " in the Presidential 
chair. Now I propose to give the story of this land, since so 
much has been said about it, and I speak by the book. I 
know what I am talking about, for I have looked into it. In 
1867 Mr. Jones proposed to the then General Grant to join 
him in the purchase of one hundred and twenty-four acres of 
land near Chicago, at one hundred and twenty-five dollars 
per acre, which he (Mr. Jones) thought would be a good 



8 

speculation. So did tlic General, but having no], money to 
invest, he was forced to decline, and Mr. Jones found another 
man to go in with him. About a year later Mr. Jones told 
the General that the party with whom he had bought wished 
to sell out his interest at 4:ln'cc hundred and fifty dollars per 
acre, and offered General Grant a share in it. General Grant 
wrote him that he would take one-half of the interest which 
Mr. Jones was to buy of his partner. Before the General's 
letter reached Mr. Jones, the latter had made the purchase 
on his own account, and of course had taken tlie deed to him- 
self. General Grant borrowed the money temporarily with 
which to pay for it in part, and when he sold his house in 
Washington and paid the balance, Mr. Jones transferred to 
him an undivided one-quarter, and the consideration expressed 
in the deed was one dollar, a custom too common among real 
estate dealers to call for any comment or even attract atten- 
tion. General Grant actually paid, and this I know, for 
principal, interest, searching records, stamps, &c., eleven 
thousand, two hundred and twenty odd dollars. To such 
desperate straits have the opponents of the President been 
driven, to blacken his name and that of his efficient officers. 
But this, ridiculous as it is, does not l)egin to compare in 
infamy with the stories about the President's 

LONG BRANCH COTTAGE. 
A large amount of the capital which has ])cen contributed 
to the Democratic concern with which to do business against 
the President, has been the cry that Mr. Muri)hy gave him a 
cottage at Long Branch, in consideration of wliich the Presi- 
dent appointed him Collector. On examination into the cir- 
cumstances attending tlie purchase of this cottage, this 
dreadful transaction on the part of the President, which has 
caused the saints of the Democratic party to hold up their 
hands in holy horror for so long a lime, vanishes into thin air. 
Mr. Mui-phy has published a card in whicli he says he did not 
give the President a cottage at Jjong Brancli or anything of 
the kind, or contribute towards one. nor docs he know of any 
person who did. Stories have been circulated with great 
persistency that a gentlemen in New York had known or seen 



9 

or heard of a paper having been circulated in order to raise 
money to buy a cottage for the President at Long Branch, or 
somewhere else, and the opponents of the President have 
undertaken to make much capital out of this wild rumor, but 
come to chase it down, tlicre is notliing in it. No man has 
ever circulated a paper for such a purpose by authority or 
with the knowledge of the President or any of his friends. 
And yet in spite of the proved falsity of these rumors, prom- 
inent gentlemen and newsi)apers continue to charge that of- 
fice-holding friends of the President assisted him in some 
manner in the purchase of his Long Branch property, all of 
which I know to be false, as certainly as a man can know 
anything of the kind after a most thorough and searching 
examination and chasing down each story as it appeared. 

Had the eminent gentlemen who have made these charges 
given as much attention to them as one of their constituents 
would have done to find out the responsibility of a party to 
whom he wanted to sell a case of brogans, they would a 
long time ago have discovered their utter falsity. The truth 
is, the President owns two cottages at Long Branch, in one of 
which he lives, and the other he rents. None of this property 
has ever been owned by Mr, Murphy, nor was he in any way con 
nected with its purchase. During a visit of the President at 
Long Branch, some of his friends expressing a wish that he 
would make that his summer residence, he signified a willing- 
ness to do so could a place be found within his pecuniary 
reach This was finally done, and afterwards an additional 
lot was purchased, on. which he erected another house at an 
expense of about $18,000 besides the land, for which he paid 
about 86,000, the money to pay for the same being raised by 
the sale of government bonds in which he had invested the 
money which had been presented to him by liberal citizens of 
New York while he was General, and long before, he thought 
of being President. Now all this hue and cry about the Pres- 
ident's Long Branch cottage having been given him by office- 
holders, is a tissue of falsehood, invented by people who should 
have known better, and would, had they been half as careful 
to look into the truth of stories while circulating them as 
2 



10 

they were zealous to give them additional publicity after they 
had been started, and shows the anxiety of our opponents to 
make a sensation and to create public opinion against a politi- 
cal adversary. And it is all on a par with their tactics. 
Most of the speeches of the eminent senators, and most of 
the addresses and manifestoes which are issued from Liberal 
Republican headquarters, are made up of mere clap-trap. 
They assail the President right and left, but have very little 
to say against the measures of his administration, and still 
less in favor of Horace Greeley, his principles, his promises, 
or what he proposes to do in case he should be elected. He 
talks much about hand-shakings across imaginary bloody 
chasms, dressed in an old white hat and coat, and his friends 
think that this sort of a show will attract such attention as 
to conceal his defects, and put him into the White House 
with a hurrah. 

Ihit they will learn their mistake when the question comes 
l)efuic the people for their decision. The American public is 
too intelligent to be caught by any such Falstafhan device. 

The time has passed, and the temper of the people is too 
serious to care for the age. color, or style of hats and coats. 

The qualities of leadership which we now require arc hon- 
esty of heart and purpose that none but proper measures may 
bo wished for, firmness and capacity of head and brain to ])ro- 
joct, and strength and steadiness ot hand to execute. For 
these qualifications we are quite willing our candidate should 
be subjected to the closest scrutiny. "We do not fear the 
comparison with any of his contemporaries or of any charac- 
ter of American history. 

THE RAWLINS SLANDER. 
The recent converts to Democracy exhibit the same 
traits and enthusiasm for their cause, for which new converts 
arc so proverbial. Notably is this so in the case of that 
famous general who did so much to advance the respectabili- 
ty ot the American nation while representing it at a foreign 
court, and who has been so notorious for his self-sacrificing 
devotion to the Republican i)arty, while he was a member of 
it, and for whom wo have done so nuich apologizing in time 



11 

past, which duty I am thankful has no^y been transferred to 
the other side — the impetuous and virtuous Kilpatrick. This 
gallant chieftain, after having been kicked out ^ a New York 
court, has lately been disporting himself in Vermont, and the 
results of his labors were plainly visible in our glorious vic- 
tory a few days ago. He there turned upon his old leader in 
a manner as vile, as vindictive, and as malevolent, as his fawn- 
ing had heretofore been conspicuous. He did not hesitate to 
charge the President with behaving in an unfeeling manner 
towards Genei-al Rawlins, between whom and General Grant 
it is well known had existed a long and intimate friendship. 
He there charged the President with remaining at Saratoga, 
pursuing a life of pleasure, while the friends of poor Rawlins 
were telegraphing him to hasten to the bedside of the dying 
Secretary. The only dispatch received on the Sunday named 
was one from General Sherman that Rawlins was worse and 
wished to see him ; though previous dispatches, of which 
there were quite a number, had been more favorable as to 
Rawlins' condition, and had not indicated that he was dan- 
gerously ill. Upon the receipt of Sherman's dispatch, the 
President hastened, with a single secretary, to take the 
first train from Saratoga, not giving time to Ins family even 
to accompany him, such was his haste, and also breaking an 
engagement which he had made to go to Utica the next day, 
against the remonstrances of his friends and to the great dis- 
appointment of thousands of people. He took special trains 
where he could, and regular trains where he must, to Baltimore, 
where he took special carriage across the city, and on special 
car flew to Washington, but arrived one hour after the death 
of his old chief of staff and favorite secretary. 

General Rawlins, before his death, made a will, leaving his 
estate and children in care of the President, to which estate 
the President contributed $2,500, and has ever since looked 
carefully after those children and the fund left them. The 
children are now with a married sister of General Rawlins at 
the West, and are carefully watched over by the President. 
With his usual care and st>licitude for the interests of otliers, 
he has placed their properly in registered bonds of the United 



12 

States, ia their own names, to guard against possible acci- 
dent. 

And yet thi^ Democratic orator, this " truthful James" of 
this mongrel party, has the efi'rontery and shamelessness to 
accuse his old Commander-iu-Chicf of acting towards his 
friend and his friend's orphan children in an unfeeling man- 
ner. 

Perhaps such statements as these are not worth noticing, 
and yet as they form so large a part of the stock in trade of our 
opponents, I cannot hold my peace, but wish to add my pro- 
test to that of more eminent gentlemen than myself, who 
have denounced these slanders as being without the slightest 
shadow of a foundation. Scarcely three months liave yet 
elapsed since this slanderer was asking the President for still 
further favors at his hands, the refusal of which may in some 
degree account for the bitterness of his hostility. 

THE COLORED CADET. 

A similar sort of a story has been gotten up in regard to 
ihe President's ccniduct towards the colored cadet Smith at 
West Point. As the Tribune gives the story in its campaign 
sheet, the President is made to say to the Secretary of War 
that he, the President, wanted the court-martial so made up 
as to dismiss the cadet, when the facts are exactly the re- 
verse. 

Gen. 0. 0. Howard, the well known friend of the colored 
people, was made President of the court, and the cadet was 
not dismissed, though he was found guilty of conduct unbe- 
coming an officer. 

And yet a Liberal Republican, a gentleman who was some- 
what prominent in tlic Cincinnati convention which invented 
Mr. Greeley as a presidential candidate, has declared in the 
Tribune that Gen. Iluward told him all tliis stuif about the 
President's request to the Secretary of War. 

Tiic President, Secretary of War, and Gen. Howard all 
liaving denied the whole story, it appears to be now a question 
of veracity between the Liberal Rei>ublican before referred to 
and G(>n. Howard, and \m oiu: who knows them both will 



13 

hesitate long in deciding as to which lias the most treacherous 
memory. 

No man has ever been more true to the colored race, both 
in general and in detail, than has our President. He has 
labored no less incessantly tb keep cadet Smith at West Point 
in spite of the findings of tlie court which were against him, 
than he has to give our colored friends all over the South the 
rights to which the constitutional amendments entitle them ; 
and whether this is appreciated or not by the Liberal Repub- 
lican patron of cadet Smith, (who, while this colored United 
States officer w^as on a late visit at his house, did not allow 
him to sit at tlie table with the family, but treated the cadet 
like an inferior,) the colored people generally appreciate it and 
ever have 

The President's interest in them is shown by acts and deeds, 
and is vastly more effective than the boasting words of the 
Liberal Republicans. 

When the President was nominated at Chicago four years 
ago, he vras not selected for his known fidelity to the princi- 
ples of the Republican party, but for his eminent services as 
a soldier and a citizen. We were not at all certain at that 
time wliether he would enter with zeal into .our particular 
notions of equality ; but we find, much to our delight, that he 
has endeavored to protect all classes of citizens, regardless of 
color or locality, in all the rights to which they were entitled. 
Xo man could be more true to the Union mci^ of the South 
than has our President, and in his course toAvards them he 
has been manfully sustained by Horace Greeley, to his honor 
be it said. Xo man has been w^armer in his encomiums on 
the President's policy at the South than Mr. Greeley, and to 
no man would we have been so reluctant to look upon as 
an enemy of the President as he. And why does not Mr. 
Gi'eeley like the President ? He has over and over again de- 
clared that the President had stood manfully by the doctrines 
of the Republican party on the question of the colored race ; 
that Gen. Grant would be better fitted to be President the 
second term than the first, and that he never had been beaten 
and never would be. To all of which we most heartily re- 
spond, and in which we entirely agree with Mr. Greeley. 



14 

Perhaps Mr. Greeley's opposition to tlie President arises 
from the fact that he was not, like Mr. Greeley, ready to let 
the South go out at the opening of the war ; perhaps because 
he was not willing, like Mr. Greeley, to make peace on any 
terms during the war ; perhaps because he did not, like Mr. 
Greeley, approve of treating with armed emissaries of the re- 
bellion ; and perhaps the motive of his action is to be found 
in later and more personal difference of opinions. 

Be that as it may, the antagonistic opinions, during the war, 
of the two men who arc now rival candidates, have become 
matters of history, and for those opinions they must answer to 
the American people. 

Gen. Grant l^elieved and acted upon the belief that rebel- 
lion was not only unjustifiable, but a crime, and should be 
put down ; that the right of secession did not exist ; that uo 
treaty could be made with rebels in arms ; that no peace could 
be valuable or lasting that was not achieved by force, and 
that the only way to treat traitors in open rebellion was to 
crush them into submission. The result justifies the correct- 
ness of these ideas. Had we followed Mr. Greeley's advice 
at the beginning of the rebellion, we should not now have 
had a country, undivided and powerful, over which to elect 
a President, but should have been broken up into a group of 
petty sovereignties, without respect or influence among the 
nations of the world. 

ECONOMY OF THE PRESIDENT. 

Among the characteristics of the President, which have 
challenged my admiration from my first acquaintance with, 
or knowledge of him, has been his strict adherence to all the 
rules of propriety, of deportment, justice of administration, 
and economy of business management. These were notably 
shown while he was in command of the armies, as they have 
been during his occupancy of the Presidential chair. After 
the surrender of Lee at Appomattox Court House, this mod- 
est gentleman and prompt man, instead of going to Richmond 
and receiving an ovation as most commanders would have 
done, and which would have been somewhat excusable, hur- 



ried at once to Washington, the next post of duty ; but, before 
doing so, however, he tclegraplied at once all over the coun- 
try, that the war was at an end, that we needed no more men, 
and that the recruiting offices must shut up shop instanter, 
which was an immense saving to the government, for every 
day's business cost a large sum of money. It struck me 
then as a most timely, prompt, and economical measure, and 
increased my confidence in him, as his first impulse was to 
stop expenses, reduce the forces, and commence to liquidate. 

The difference between a prompt, economical, far-sighted 
business manager, at that critical juncture, and a hesitating, 
vaccinating, or vain man, can be counted onlv by millions of 
dollars of debt. 

When we calculate the large number of recruiting offices, 
then in full operation, tlie amount of materials of war being 
manufactured, the perfectly enormous amount of daily ex- 
penses, which were necessarily being incurred in consequence 
of the large army we then h;;d in the field, it is impossible 
not to admire the practical matter-of-fact view, which the 
General took of affairs. He had for years been directing his 
attention solely to the -suppression of the rebellion, paying 
little or no attention to its cost, but looking only to results. 
But no sooner was tlie fact accomplished, no sooner had this 
long wished for, but long delayed result been brought about, 
than we saw this mighty chieftain, this great captain, who 
apparently had no thoughts in his mind except those of war, 
at once assume the reins of active business management, at 
once commence to repair our losses, at once turn his entire 
attention towards the ways and means of peace. 

How shall the nation best and quickest get back to its 
peace footing ? was the first question he asks of himself. His 
decisions were then, as always, marked by a promptness, a 
common sense judgment, and a sound discretion, as unex- 
pected and unlouked for, as they were proper and economical. 

He disbanded our armies quicker than any similar event 
of recorded history, and almost before the nation knew it, 
we were in the full tide of peaceful prosperity and develop- 
ment. 



16 

Our hundreds of thousands of soldiers had changed front, 
and from heing consumers, had become producers, — another 
proof not only of the ability and lionesty of our General and 
his officers, but of the capacity of our people for self govern- 
ments 

Had our government contributed as much money out of its 
treasury as a token of confidence in and obligation to this 
practical, prompt, and silent General of our armies, as have 
other nations for far less valuable services, it would not have 
paid to him as much money as he saved to it l)y putiing in 
practice his lessons of business, life. 

PROPRIETY OF THE PRESIDENT'S LIFE. 
When he assumed command of the armies operating against 
Richmond he found liquors being freely sold by sutlers and 
others, to the great detriment and demoralization of tlie army, 
and on the 4th of September, 18G4, he issued the following 
stringent order : 

Headquarters Armies of the United States, 
City Point, Ya., Sept. 8th, 1804. 

Brigadier General 31. R. Patrick, Provost Marshal General 

Armies Operating against Richmond. 
General : 

The attention of Lieutenant General Grant having been 
called to the large quantities of liquor being brought within 
the lines of the armies operating against Richmond, he directs 
that, from and after this date, you prohibit all kinds of sjiirit- 
uous, vinous, or malt liquors from l)eing brought above Fort 
Monroe, Virginia, except sucli as belong to the commissary or 
medical departments. 

I am, General, very respectfully. 
Your obedient servant, 
(Signed.) T. S. BOWERS, 

Assistant Adjutant Genei'al. 

Ti\is order indicates that he ])roposcd to carry out through 
the entire army the same rules wliich were oliscrved at his 
own headipiarters. At no time during his command in the 
East, which is as far as my information extends on this point, did 
he ever allow one single drop of intoxicating drink, either wine, 
or spirituous, or malt liquors at his mess table. This rule 



17 

was strictly adhered to, and lie enforced it, not only at his 
own mess, but, so far as he was able, all through the army. 
Much was said by his enemies at the time of his first sucj 
cesses at the West, in regard to the habits of General Grant, 
who was then comparatively unknown. When he was accused 
to Mr. Lincoln of using intoxicating drinks, Mr. Lincoln in 
the quaint manner in which he refuted all such accusations, 
simply replied " that if such was the fact he should like some 
of the same kind of whisky for his other generals" — thus in- 
dicating that he did not believe a word of it, in which he showed 
his usual good sense, for persons who are in the habit of being 
under the influence of liqaor make mistakes, which Grant never 
did in the army. None of these stories liave ever been proven, 
but on the contrary have been found false whenever examined 
into. One of the notable cases was at the battle of Shiloh, 
where he was accused by the whole rebel element in our midst 
of having been under the influence of intoxicating liquor. 
The following letter from his then Chief of Staff seems to 
settle the question so far as that day is concerned : 

Chicago, Sept. 4, 1872. 
Col. Isaac S. Sfercarl : 

Dear Sir : — ^Your note of the 2d inst. is just received, and in reply I 
have to state that you are authorized on my behalf to deny in the most 
emphatic manner all statements of Gen. Grant having been drunk or in 
any degree under the influence of liquor at the battle of Shiloh. I was at 
this time his Chief of Staff and Chief of Artillery. I breakfasted with the 
General at Savannah on Sunday, the first day of the battle. I went on 
board the boat with him and rode into the field with him at about 8 1-2 
o'clock, in person, and was necessarily with him, except at intervals of ab- 
sence on duty, during the whole day. I lay down with him long after dark 
that night, on a small parcel of hay which the Quartermaster put down to 
keep us out of the mud, in the rear of the artillery line on the lelt, and I 
never heard till long afterward of any idea entertained by anybody that 
lie was drunk, nor did I see him drink during the day, and I am sure he 
"Was perfectly sober as he was self-possessed and collected during the vai-y- 
ing ibrtunes of that celebrated battle. If there are any words in which 
can deny the miserable charge more fully and distinctly, I am ready to 
adopt them. 

Very truly yours, J. D. WEBSTER. 

Late Brevet Major-General Volunteers, and Chief of Stafi'to Gen. W. T. 

Sherman. 

And so it is with all these stories. No man was ever more 
careful of the influence of his example than Gen. Grant 
all through his military life — nor did his thoughtfulness in 



18 

this respect end when he was elevated to the Presidency, but 
be carried out the same idea in high places. 

On the first New Year's day after his inauguration, he re- 
quested his cabinet to refrain from having any intoxicat- 
ing drink on their refreshment tables. This request was 
gladly complied with, except in the case of one oflFicer who 
was not present when the request was made, and ever since 
this has been the rule with the President and Cabinet on New 
Year's day ; thus setting an example at the capital of the na- 
tion, and in high quarters, which it would be well for our 
country to have everywhere followed. Many of you will rec- 
ollect with what pleasure the fact was known at the time. 
His deportment and example has always been on the side of 
public morality and virtue, to which I can bear much personal 
testimony, and which has not yet been disputed l)y any ci-edi- 
ble witness. 

His language is singularly chaste and moderate, as is his 
life. It is the universal testimony that, since he has been Pres- 
ident no man has ever heard him use an expression in private 
conversation that was not proper to be made on the platform. 
Having had much opportunity to observe him, I wish to bear 
witness to the propriety of his life. Having seen him under 
many varied and peculiar circumstances, never in a single in- 
stance have I seen anything in him which I could regret, and 
all stories reflecting upon the propriety of his life 1 believe to be 
false. In fact, I knoic them to be so, as much as any man can 
know the facts concerning one with whom he is on familiar 
terms, but with whom he is not in constant communication. 

He is singularly discreet also in regard to promises of pat- 
ronage. General Pleasanton, who was a mutual friend of the 
President and Senator Schurz, undertook to bring them to- 
gether, and has made a singiilar statement, intimating that 
the President promised patronage to the Senator if he would 
go for certain measures. Being in Washington myself at about 
the same time, December, 1870, I undertook to do tiie same 
thing, and asked the President if ho would not see the senator 
and undertake to reconcile their dillirulties. He replied that 
he know of no reason why there should be auv (lilbouKv be- 



19 

tween them, and said he should be glad to meet the senator, 
which I communicated to Senator Schurz, who declined to 
visit the President unless invited to do so in writing. Nothing 
was said or intimated to me by the President about patronage, 
and it is a singular fact that General Pleasanton has stated 
to a gentleman within the last month, that the first mention 
of patronage came from the senator himself. 

THE BOWEN-SHERMAN HOUSE. 
And speaking of patronage, there has been one distorted 
story that would never have been given to the public, probably, 
had the President appointed Mr. Sayles J. Bowen minister to 
the Argentine Republic, as Mr. Bowen last winter requested, 
nay, almost demanded. It seems that in the winter of 1869 
General Grant s(;ld his house, through Judge Latta, a real 
estate broker of Washington, to one Sayles J. Bowen, for 
forty thousand dollars, and Mr. Bowen put up with the broker 
one thousand dollars to bind the bargain. When the gentle- 
men from New York came on to present General Sherman 
with a house, they took a fancy to this same house, and offered 
to take it at the same price and pay twenty-five thousand dol- 
lars for the furniture, for which General Grant had no use, 
the White House to which he was about to remove having its 
own furniture. Mr. Bowen was asked if he was willing to 
cancel the contract and take back his one thousand dollars, 
to which he readily assented. General Grant paying the 
broker's commission and all expenses. After General Sher- 
man had taken possession, he for some reason thought he 
would prefer the money to the house, and offered it again to 
Mr. Bowen for the same price he had before agreed to pay 
General Grant, which offer was not accepted ; and that is all 
there is about the Bowen-Sherman house, and the transaction 
would have remained in oblivion had the President given Mr, 
Bowen all the patronage he desired, which was not a little. 
The New York World published a distorted statement of the 
facts reflecting on the President some time ago, which Mr. 
Bowen denied in a card. 



20 

But ill doing as he has, Mr. Bowcn has only followed the 
example of his superiors, as perhaps Senator Sumner's oppo- 
sition to the President might have been more mild, had he 
appointed the senator's biographer, Mr. Phelps, to the posi- 
tion of U. S. Marshal and turned out General Andrews, which 
the senator persistently urged. 

He might also perhaps to this day have retained the friend- 
ship of Mr. George Wilkes had he appointed him Minister to 
Mexico, for which Mr. Wilkes thought himself so well fitted, 
and in which the President dilTcred from him. Yet the Pres- 
ident tried to please Mr. Wilkes by appointing the now famous 
George H. Butler, Consul-General to Cairo, for which Mr. 
Wilkes pleaded personally and earnestly, he being the only 
man who did back this appointment. 

Whether the editor of the Spirit of the Times would have 
been any better Minister to Mexico than his proteg^ Butler 
was Consul to Cairo, is a problem which, alas ! will never be 
solved. 

SPECIMEN OF INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM. 

On the 22d of June last, the editor of a not entirely unin- 
fluential paper in New England, in writing of the Fifth 
Avenue Conference of the Liberal Republicans and Dem- 
ocrats, alluded to the nomination of ^Ir. Greeley as follows : 

" Whatever might have been the sentiment of the people immediately 
aftei" the nomination, and however severe the disappointment, one thing 
was certain from the tone and temper of this carefully selected conference 
of men, who had been or were sujijjosed to be disallected at the result, to 
wit : that the country had settled down to it, and wisely or unwisely, de- 
cided to accept and make the best of it. There was a very frank disdo- , 
sure of personal objections to the candidate, and no one pretended, as 
some of the lying politicians who re-nominated Gi'ant the other d;iy did, 
that he was their first choice, or that he was anybody's ideal of a candi- 
date. That sort of nonsense is tor people who discover heroic qualities in 
a horse-jockey, statesmanship in a dog-fancier, and moral worth in the 
conijianion of lewd women and base men." 

When asked personally if these insiiuiaiiniis were aimed at 
Gen. Grant, he frankly saitithcy were, and was told that they 
were every one false, but did not retract them. Now the fact 



21 

about Gen. Grant's horses is, that while he loves a good 
horse — as do most of us — and is a good judge of one — as, alas ! 
most of us are not — yet he never owned a horse for running 
or trotting, keeping, in fact, no " fast horses" at all, not one 
of them ever having been on a race-course, but uses what he 
does keep simply for driving. Nor has he ever been at any 
race since he has been President. Who of us has done bet- 
ter? He has never owned a dog, they being one of his an- 
tipathies. The other insinuations are too base to need reply ; 
suffice it to say, that no gentleman, except the one alluded to, 
has to my knowledge ever dared to make such an insinuation ; 
and he is no longer an editor, but has gone to his own place. 
He is now chairman of a Greeley State Committee. The New 
York Tribune and the Democratic press of the country has 
constantly talked about Grant's dogs, and " Marshal Brown's 
pups." How this stuff originated no one knows. The only 
connection between them is, that Gen. Grant happened at 
one time to live in the same block with Marshal Brow 
whose son-in-law had a fancy for dogs. 

SENECA STONE CO. 

But one of the most absurd stories, after all, that has been 
trumped up against the President, is the Seneca sandstone 
quarry business, of which I would not speak but that I have 
known something of it from the start, for I talked some of 
taking" stock in it when it was started, but did not. Gen. Grant 
bought in 1867, for an investment, as he would buy anything 
else, and as plenty of other people did buy, ^10,000 worth of 
stock of the Seneca Stone Company. It has never paid him 
a cent of dividend, nor has it much if any market value now. 
No public building has ever been built of it, though it has 
been used .considerably for other building purposes. This is 
all there is in this much talked-of stor}'. Why the President 
has not a right to own stock in a stone quarry as much as any 
other man, is a mystery to me, thougli as a business man I 
wouldn't hold the stock unless it paid dividends, which it 
does not. 

I have now alluded to most of the prominent attacks against 
the President's personal character, and have been at some 



22 

pains to get at the facts, and I firmly believe he is as honest 
and pure as he is modest and courageous. Occupied as he 
constantly is, when in Washington, with public business, 
scores of people seeing him at all hours of the day — standing 
on a pedestal so higli that his slightest acts, both public and 
private, are plainly visible to the eye of a jealous public — 
standing as he now does between two great parties, and with 
the disposition now so prevalent to pull every man down who 
is prominent, the only wonder is that nothing has yet been 
brought against him jwhich investigation docs not entirely 
clear up. 

CIVIL SERVICE. 

One of the topics which has properly agitated the public 
mind of late, has been the so-called Civil Service Reform. 
There is quite a general desire on the part of our pcoi)le to 
raise the standar.i of our Civil Service to a higher degree of 
efficiency. The President has been very earnest in this mat- 
ter, as he is in every thing in which he heartily believes and 
which comes in his line of duty. 

He is determined tiiat so far as it is in his power, the civil 
department of our government shall be as well administered 
as are its military and naval — and to this end is he directing 
his best energies. He finds many difficulties in the way, as 
may naturally be sujiposed, still difficulties are more easily 
overcome by him than in the case of most men, as ho never 
gives up when he thinks he is right. This trait of character 
gives any man great power. It has come to my knowledge 
that within the last month a member of Congress, upon ask- 
ing him to remove an officer for political reasons, received for 
his rcj)ly, that political grounds alone were not sufficient to 
cause the removal of any man — and that for himself he pro- 
posed that Mr. Curtis and his plan of Civil Service Reform 
should have a fair trial. 

And now, why should not this man be re-elected President 
of the United States? The acts of his adminisiiation are not 
even much attacked by our opponents. ^Vhy should not 
Republicans and Democrats unite in continuing an adminis- 



OQ 



tration which has given us peace at home and ahroad, an 
economical government, a large reduction of both taxation 
and the public debt at the same time, and has in all particu- 
lars fully made good the promises and predictions with which 
it started ? What we need in this great and productive coun- 
try more than all else in a government is stability, that our 
financial and domestic affairs shall be carried on with an 
even hand. So long as this is done we shall have the same 
prosperous times which we have enjoyed during the last three 
years, and if we continue the present administration there is 
every reason to believe that we shall continue to prosper and 
to add to our wealth and resources, and thus add to our 
power and respectability. I am interested in the active, pro- 
ductive, material affairs of the community in which I reside. 
I belong to the class that take risks, own property, owe 
debts, and employ labor, and my experience is that with an 
even, stable, and economical administration of our govern- 
mental affairs I can make more money, pay better prices for 
labor, and pay my debts easier than I can to have a vacilla- 
ting or an uneven course pursued by those in authority. Do 
not all of you find this to be your own experience ? We are 
all of us under great obligations to Mr. Bout well for his hon- 
est and even administration of our finances, and for one I 
wish to have another four years of just such opportunities of 
developing the resources of this great nation as the last three 
have been. Mr. Greeley's constant shrieking to have the 
Treasury depleted of its gold and to resume specie payment 
by legal enactment, is too absurd to demand a moment's no- 
tice from any thoughtful business man. Whatever his policy 
might be in regard to the questions concerning the races, it 
certainly could be no better than General Grant's, and. I have 
no anxiety to see it tried ; but I consider his head not level 
enough to direct our finances, and the .ther groat operations 
of our nation. Capital and labor always siirink from experi- 
ments. Neither one nor the other has in this crisis of our 
country's history and developement, any ambition to follow 
the vagaries of a visionary brain like Mr. Greeley's. 

Parties bid fair to have their foundations broken up as the 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 







013 789 553 5 

result of tliis election. The Democratic party has alieaay 
sold out its birthright, and from present prospects for a very 
small mess of pottage. Whether it can ever regain its as- 
cendancy is certainly problematical. It surely ought not to 
be permitted to do so unless it can be a better party than the 
sample you gentlemen have had here in the city of New 
York. 

The only principle to which it has always been true is 
that which one of its leaders said kept it together, — the co- 
hesive attraction of public plunder. From this })rinciple it 
has never swerved. It has never failed to keep the spoils 
fully in its eye, or, for that matter, to get them fully in its 
hands, and should they succeed with Mr. Greeley as their 
leader, it is quite a question whether they will not give the 
same assiduous attention to the treasury at Washington that 
they did to the treasury of New York City in their successful 
days. 

But a change has and will come in your State, and I pre- 
dict that after the next inauguration of Governor, if any man 
attempts to haul out any public plunder he will be shot on 
the spot. 

It is a good rule to stand by the party that has stood by 
the principles which we hold most dear; and when they say 
we can be just as good Republicans and follow Mr. Greeley 
as if we follow Gen. Grant, I take issue on it at once. It is 
impossible to exactly tell our political future, (except that the 
election of Gen. Grant is getting to be a certainty,) nor can 
any of us tell exactly to what political party he may belong 
four years hence ; but for this campaign and this election I 
propose to stand by the regular Republican organization — by 
that party which has never turned its Itack on any man be- 
cause he was poor, or because he was ignorant, or because he 
was black. 



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